Dictionary of Terrorism

Over the past half century tense Hindu-Muslim relations in India, including riots in cities like Mumbai and Kolhhata has posed new strains on India-Pakistan relations. The unabated conflict in the disputed territory of Kashmir remains a major threat to regional peace and security. With its Muslim majority, Kashmir rejects Indian authority.

In 1988 the old dispute was revived. Militant Muslim groups wanting secession of Kashmir to Pakistan resorted to 'violence', using weapons bought in from Pakistan and Afghanistan. There are six major groups of Kashmiri secessionists claiming 45,000 guerrillas in all - some wanting independence some wanting union with Pakistan, some were Islamic fundamentalists and others wanted a democratic state (Brogan, 1992).

The most dangerous are the Jamma and Kashmir Liberation Front, led by Javad Ahmad Mir, which supports independence for Kashmir including that part of the ancient province now occupied by Pakistan and known as Azad Kashmir (Free Kashmir).

Growing ethno-nationalism is fuelling the conflict. The separate Kashmir identity is substantiated on the basis of geographic, linguistic, historical and religious differences. Over 35,000 Kashmiri's have lost their lives in armed encounters since 1989. Any possible solution - a United Nations supervised plebiscite, complete independence, regionally guaranteed autonomy or further partition will upset either India or Pakistan and lead to further bouts of terrorism and violence (Malik, 1993).

References

Brogan, P. (1992) World Conflicts: Why and Where They are Happening, London: Bloomsbury.

The Khmer (Cambodian) Liberation Army - dubbed the 'Khmer Rouge' by Cambodian head of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk in the late-1960s, was a peasant-based revolutionary force which established its political authority over all Cambodia in April 1975. Three years later there was a Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea in December 1978 and a war that flickered on until the mid-1980s.

The split between Vietnamese and Cambodian revolutionaries dates back to 1954, when the new government in Hanoi, North Vietnam, anxious to adhere to the terms of the Geneva Agreements withdrew support from the Cambodian Communist Party and left the state to pursue a neutralist policy under the autocratic Sihanouk. He achieved widespread popularity and the relative prosperity of Cambodia grew. Communists in Cambodia, convinced that the North Vietnamese government in Hanoi had betrayed the revolution, went underground. However, they could achieve little on their own apart from setting up safe base areas on the Maoist pattern and organising occasional guerrilla attacks.

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